Magritte Small Book Page Front

This page that will be added to a book with other artists' pages was wonderful to create! Before I joined this swap I didn't know much about Magritte other than knowing he was a surrealist painter. Finding out about his life and creating a piece in his honor was a great education! I was asked to submit this page for publication by Sherryllynne of The Gleaner Zine. It should be published in August. I'll let you know more when I find out! I must say though...it's pretty exciting to know that something I created will be published!

Magritte Page Front Open

The flower on this page opens up to reveal a Magritte quote. It is: "Everything we see hides another thing; we always want to see what is hidden by what we see". When I found this quote I knew that I had to make it a part of my page. It is so true that we always want to see what is hidden. So much so in fact, that we tend to overlook everything else but what we cannot see and end up blinding ourselves to the real meaning of what is visible.

Magritte Page Back Closed

We were asked to include an ATC on the back of our pages that somehow related to the theme. It was a no-brainer to create another flower that moves for the back! :) My "signature" is done in a cloud, which is something that Magritte often used himself. The brick wall is also another Magritte-ism. The name of this page is "The Great War Revisited" because it was partly based on his painting "The Great War" below:

Magritte Page Back Opened

When you open the flower it reveals another Magritte quote which is "the mind loves the unknown". I thought it very appropriate for this project.

If I were to do this project again, I would do two things different. First, I would not make all 20+ pages all by hand. This took forever and several bottles of rubber cement! Second, I would have made the colors in this composition even brighter. Magritte did love color and many of his works are so vibrant. But all in all, I am happy and satisfied with this composition. And learning more about Magritte was fantastic. He was an amazing painter with a love of mankind and as Helene from my group has said, treated the images of women with much respect. Bravo!

Card For Shakespeare's Siren ATC To Travel To Canada Upon

This is the card I made for Shakespeare's Siren ATC (see below) to travel to Canada in for the lucky Mermaid Lottery Winner Andrea! And, this is actually the first greeting card I have made! I think there will be a few more in my future! Sorry Hallmark! :)

Sunset Serenade ATC

This card was made for a personal swap using a vintage card (the background), paper and two postage stamps (the mermaid is cut from a postage stamp). I am currently finishing up a Rene Magritte Small Book Page for a swap book and have been seeing things in a surrealist light all week! I wasn't all that familiar with Magritte before joining the swap but am a true fan now!

"Songbird" ATC

This ATC was made for a personal swap. The woman who will get this said she loves nature. She sent me an amazing ATC in a butterfly swap that is a stunning abstract piece! While this isn't abstract, the scratches on the background paper remind me of her card. The elements are paper, a postage stamp, a sticker (sing), a button, and two tiny gems.

"Song of The Sirens" ATC

After making "Shakespeare's Siren" I was still in the watery mood so I made this for a personal swap! The card is made up of paper, hand-dyed fibers (netting, rik rak, ribbon flowers) from www.carma.biz.com/ (an amazing store!), a tiny shell, and tiny beads. The colors on this one are more amazing in person! The scan just doesn't do it justice! I kindof want to keep this one, but I made it especially for a personal swap, so that wouldn't be fair! :)

"Sailing Away" ATC

When I was making this card I didn't even realize consciously that I was putting together another sea-themed card! I was focusing more on the maps and thinking of travel. I picked the Neptune/Poseidon stamp because of his colors! I'm really pleased with how this one turned out though! When I look at it I can feel its "movement" and it makes me want to create a whole book about traveling. Perhaps that will be a summer project!

The card is made up of paper, a used postage stamp, half of a slide/negative mailer (the square frame) covered in paper, a key charm, a bit of a golden paper doily, and the words are stickers. A Good Tip: When working with the paper slide/negative mailers, used rubber cement to attach paper to it! Regular tacky glue tends to warp the image and other glues don't hold the paper well on the plastic. And before adding the paper, I lightly scored a criss-cross design into the blank mailer so the glue could get an extra strong grip. :)

Shakespeare's Siren ATC For A Mermaid Lottery

This card was made for a mermaid lottery contest in the ARTCHIXSTUDIO Group. There were 36 cards plus one awesome clam-shell Mermaid Motel made! Andrea in Canada was the lucky winner of all those sultry sirens! And to say the rest of us are green with envy is putting it lightly! Heh Heh! We are happy for Andrea though, as the only other thing she has ever won was a stuffed beaver with an attached toothbrush! Me thinks she deserves these lovelies!! Congrats Andrea, you lucky, lucky Mermaid Matron! There's going to be a rush for the Canadian Border like nothing we've seen since the results of the 2004 election! :p

"Heartaches" ATC

This ATC was also made for a personal swap. It is a mixed media collage consisting of paper, a torn paper covered free-form heart cut from heavy cardstock, vintage sheet music (the "heart" word inside the heart is from the same sheet), a sticker, and a tiny heart embellishment.

I liked the "Many a heart is aching" line from this sheetmusic because it is somewhat ambiguous and provokes a little thought! It does in me, anyways! I wonder, are those hearts aching because they are desperately in love? Or maybe because they are the victim of unrequited love? Or just because they have had their hearts broken? Hmm...we shall never know! Maybe the recipient of this card will let us know what she thinks!

Celestial Dreams 1, 2 & 3

These cards were made for a group swap at Bmuse. The theme was Celestial and we could interpret that any way we wanted. These ladies are images from antique french postcards and I just love them. The background paper is a waxy tissue type paper from a paper swap. I added word and star stickers and cute little sun charms from "Vintage Treasures By Judy". You can find her store on eBay. Search by seller: vintagetreasuresbyjudy. She's got great prices and bunches of stuff to use in collages and other projects! Again, no affiliation, I just love her store!

"Fortunant Friends" ATC

This card is made from several different papers torn and glued for the background. The image is from an ArtchixStudios collage sheet, and the little gems and button in the corner from Vintage Treasures By Judy. And actually, this card is being sent to Judy as we speak!

If you have time, go and check out the Art Chix Studio Site! Helga has some amazing collage sheets and art bits to use in your artwork! And she's super, super friendly and professional! I belong to her Yahoo Group and it is one of the most fun places on the web! That is where the Mermaid Lottery came from! We had a rolling-good time with that one! :)

http://www.artchixstudio.com/

Again, I don't own or have any professional ties to this store, I just love it and want to share it with you! And HINT HINT her stuff makes AWESOME Christmas Gifts!!

"Destinations" ATC

Yep! Another ocean like card! Maybe we should drive down to the coast one of these weekends! I do miss the lovely ocean! Anyways, this ATC card is being sent as a personal swap. It is made using paper, a paper covered slide/negative mailer, a vintage postage stamp, a word sticker, and ribbon from CARMA. The colors are so much more amazing in person, too!